We made it to the mountain! We got up this morning, had a last cafe breakfast in town, and loaded the YAZ vans for the trip to Elbrus-Northside Basecamp. The YAZ is the itinerant vehicle in rural Russia, and Mike Uchal's next car. Styled like a Volkswagen van, but diesel, four-wheel drive, with nothing but the basics inside, they are built to bounce, bump, splash, and grind their way over terrain, generally at what feels like a fair amount of speed. That's exactly what we did this morning. Our drivers Igor and Yuri deftly maneuvered us over the rough four-wheel drive track that leads to base camp.
Upon our arrival, we quickly erected our small city of tents, went for a walk to stretch our legs, dodged into the tents to hide from a passing rain shower, and covered up a delicious dinner of chili.
Tomorrow, we'll move a load of things up to the camp on the moraine at 12,000'. We'll be in touch afterwards!
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
The Four Day Climb, led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Sam Hoffman, reached the top of Disappointment Cleaver early this morning. After a strong alpine start and steady progress through the night, the team made excellent time ascending from Camp Muir.
As they approached the upper slopes of Mt. Rainier, the team encountered increasingly strong winds with gusts above 60 mph. Despite the group’s strength and determination, the guides made the prudent decision to turn the climb at the top of the Cleaver.
Reaching Disappointment Cleaver is a significant accomplishment, especially in challenging weather. The team demonstrated strong climbing skills, sound judgment, and excellent teamwork throughout the expedition.
Congratulations to all the climbers for their effort and perseverance. Well done!
RMI Guide Henry Coppolillo checked in from camp around 11:45 am today. The team reached the summit of Mt. Shuksan via the Fisher Chimney's route. The entire team stood on top around 8 am. The team was going to continue down to a lower elevation.
The RMI Mt. Baker Summit & Ski May 14 - 16 team led by RMI Guides JM Gorum and Alan Davis, reached the summit of Mt. Baker around 10:30 am this morning. The team climbed well and was spending a bit of time on the summit. Once things soften up a bit they will be making turns all the way backt to camp!
The team safely arrived at Basecamp after a climb up Kala Patar. New altitude records for some! The Easter bunny must have come through camp because there were little chocolate eggs left around camp when we arrived (thanks Tucker). Most everyone is feeling better and enjoying the wonderful cooking of our BC cook Kumar. The team spent the day enjoying the views and a little exploring of the camp. Hot showers were had by all!
Tomorrow we'll make the trek back down to Pheriche and hopefully cross paths with RMI's Everest climbers.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Congrats to everyone on the team and esp. those
Team Waki members. Know you are glad to finally be there. Allie and MIssy- safe travels “down” - remember it is really not down! Elsie- may the force be with you as you power up Island Peak!
Posted by: Kathryn LeBey on 4/2/2013 at 5:14 pm
Congratulations on reaching Base Camp! I hope all of you are healthy and well. Weather still looks good. Enjoy the views, and be careful on the way down. Keith, everyone here is proud and in awe of you.
I'm calling this the unofficial start to the 2013 RMI Mt. Everest Expedition. It can't be official yet because we are still waiting for Dave Hahn to arrive in Kathmandu after being delayed en route.
The rest of us have all arrived over the last two days and are doing great. We got together for dinner tonight in the district of Thamel, a crazy-maze of restaurants, shops, bars and hotels.
Tomorrow we'll spend the day picking up last minute items and getting packed for the trek into Everest Base Camp. We're all looking forward to getting started!
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Hey RMI. This is Linden Mallory calling from Island Peak High Camp. We touched the top today. We had a pretty phenomenal climb. Everybody made it, 100% success! The morning started out clear. We had beautiful stars as we were climbing. Nice morning sun. And then right as we started down, we had more snow. Keeps snowing pretty consistently since early this afternoon. The afternoon made the descent a little tricky with all that new snow on top of the rock, but the team did well. We handled it without too many problems and now we are looking forward to heading downhill tomorrow. We will be down lower in the valley tomorrow and will try and send out some photos and a written account. So that's the news. We're all really happy about the climb and happy to be down. And looking forward to getting out of here. Take care.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
You ladies are truly amazing (you too, Linden)! We are so proud to say that we are pals of such mountain climbing rock stars. Now come on home safely. We can’t wait to hear the tales of adventure in person.
Posted by: Hugh on 4/1/2012 at 6:26 am
You ladies totally rock. It was so exciting to read the news from Linden. What a great accomplishment for all of you and perhaps most especially Linden! Can’t wait to see you and hear tales of this great adventure. Safe travels home.
Hey, this is the Ecuador trip checking in.
Today we had a much deserved and much needed rest day here at the Chilcabamba Lodge. We woke up this morning to glorious views of Cotopaxi and a magnificent breakfast. We ate wonderful food and drank lots of coffee. We spent the majority of the day resting, relaxing and drying out and organizing our gear for tomorrow’s departure to Cotopaxi. This afternoon we enjoyed more coffee and continued reviews of Cotopaxi and finished the day off with a wonderful dinner this evening.
Everyone is doing well here in Ecuador and we are all looking forward to tomorrow’s adventures. We'll check in later.
RMI Guide Jason Thompson
We are checking in from our descent back to Base camp. We stayed at 11,000' last night and are currently making our way to 7,800'. K2 Aviation has two planes scheduled to pick us up from the airstrip tomorrow morning. Let's hope the weather holds!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
RMI Guide Mike Haugen checks in from 7,800' on Mt. McKinley.
Patrick…I’ve been following you too! Put another notch in your belt for an adventure that will be with you always. You’re my hero and I look forward to seeing you soon.
Posted by: jan Ellis on 7/7/2011 at 6:33 pm
Let us hear from you when you can. Grey is getting his tonsils out this am.
It never seems like much until you have it on your back.
I thought I had pared down my kit pretty well, bringing only what was essential to fill my belly, keep me warm, allow me to take pictures, edit them, and transmit them back home. It really didn't seem like a lot. But, when that "little bit" got on my back this morning, my body told me otherwise. I'm pretty sure everyone on our team was in the same boat.
With heavy packs, we huffed up the fixed lines once more. Yesterday we had some nice cloud cover keeping us cool, and today, although the sun was back to its blazing self, the temperatures were significantly cooler. Overheating was not too much of an issue.
We all moved uphill well today, keeping a plodding pace that was not too fast, not too slow, but would get us there in good time, with gas still in the proverbial tank. The old tortoise and the hare idea.
It paid off, with everyone arriving under clear skies with a gentle wind at High Camp, 12,250 feet.
It's one of the most stunning camps I've ever been to, with enchanting vistas in every direction. Shinn stands mightily off to the side, the jagged summit of Mount Epperly rising just behind it. Go just a bit out of camp, and the world drops off some 3000 feet to Low Camp, and the massive expanse of Antarctic white spreads like an ocean as far as the eye can see. And, of course, just above us looms the summit of Vinson, still some 4.5 miles off.
It's off to bed early tonight to catch a few zzz's in between shivers - the forecast calls for temperatures around -30 Celsius tonight. Then, once the sunlight hits the tents and makes life bearable, we'll suit up and begin moving uphill.
With luck, by midday tomorrow we'll be on top of the bottom of the world. It was 45 years ago that Eddie Bauer helped get the first people to the summit of Vinson, and it'll be quite a thrill to return there, with Eddie Bauer and the flag Bill Long unfurled so long ago.
Send us good thoughts, and hope the weather gods are kind to us.
Namaste,
Jake Norton
Congrats to everyone on the team and esp. those
Team Waki members. Know you are glad to finally be there. Allie and MIssy- safe travels “down” - remember it is really not down! Elsie- may the force be with you as you power up Island Peak!
Posted by: Kathryn LeBey on 4/2/2013 at 5:14 pm
Congratulations on reaching Base Camp! I hope all of you are healthy and well. Weather still looks good. Enjoy the views, and be careful on the way down. Keith, everyone here is proud and in awe of you.
Posted by: Yuki Loritz on 4/2/2013 at 3:23 pm
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